Yue Chim Richard Wong 王于漸
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When Society and Politics become a Tyranny of Minorities

By YueChim Richard On 2014/02/19 · Add Comment · 8,995 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 19 February 2014) “. . . . many . . . . withdraw into surveyable communities where they can turn to concrete and specific problems that they can better understand. There is an incentive for flight into a minority – specifically, small groups that focus on particular interests. Such minorities are seeking to take the fate of their immediate concerns into their own hands, but hoping in the process to influence and possibly control the policies of the country as a whole. Some have imposed their will against the interests of the ‘majority’, solely by dint of their stubborn, persistent concentration on a single cause. They can thus see the fruits of their political labors.”
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Rising Government Expenditures – Tyranny of the Majority, Tyranny of the Minorities and Bureaucratic Inertia

By YueChim Richard On 2014/02/12 · Add Comment · 7,852 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 12 February 2014) Rent-seeking activities . . . . take place mostly through regulations that limit competition, for example, minimum wages, standard hours of work, barriers to entry, franchises and monopolies, protectionist tariffs and quotas, and the like. Such regulatory features also make the economy less efficient and have been criticized by economists . . . . Analogously it is not from the lack of benevolence of the social welfare service providers that transfer and subsidy programs have proliferated, but from their regard to their own interest.
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Tackling Poverty through Redistribution and Growth (Part 2)

By YueChim Richard On 2014/02/05 · Add Comment · 6,843 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 5 February 2014) Income redistribution has its role, but without economic opportunities we will only end up with a crowded ward full of sick patients. Poverty has to be solved by economic growth. Income redistribution without economic growth cannot solve poverty. In the long run, it will break the back of our local economy and our public finances. Hong Kong does not have a big poverty problem of poor destitute people, but a huge problem of near poverty households that do not see a future for themselves and their children.
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Tackling Poverty through Redistribution and Growth (Part 1)

By YueChim Richard On 2014/01/29 · Add Comment · 9,245 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 29 January 2014) Sociologists, economists, and political scientists agree that an underclass exists in all these societies. . . . . many in the mainstream middle class are descending into the underclass. . . . . the ability of income redistribution in alleviating poverty has its limits; . . . . Poverty alleviation has to be tackled through another front – economic growth.
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The Poverty Line and the Value of Public Housing Subsidies to the Poor

By YueChim Richard On 2014/01/22 · Add Comment · 6,157 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 22 January 2014) There is one very simple and costless way to alleviate poverty in one fell swoop. All one has to do is to transfer full private ownership rights of the public housing units to the occupying tenant free of charge. . . . . This would, according to the government study, lift 600,000 households in public rental housing above the poverty line. This would have been the best Christmas gift the Poverty Commission could bestow on the poor people in Hong Kong on the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the Shek Kip Mei Fire.
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On Bitcoin and the Prospect of Digital Cryptocurrencies

By YueChim Richard On 2014/01/15 · Add Comment · 20,968 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 15 January 2014) Bitcoin as a currency and a means of payments has certain advantages over the existing bank-centered payments system. . . . . Part of the cost advantage is the lower cost of making payments for cross border transactions. The higher cost of using the existing bank-centered payments system can ultimately be traced to the regulatory costs imposed on the financial system. . . . . The real lesson of the Bitcoin experience for China is that its financial system needs to reform.
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Reflections on American Slavery, the Foxconn Suicides and the Third Plenum

By YueChim Richard On 2014/01/08 · Add Comment · 13,668 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 8 January 2014) The formation of a modern industrial economy requires an integrated labor market that allows workers to move freely from one place to another depending on where economic opportunities emerge. At the same time it must provide social support structures that allow individuals and households to be able to settle into a place with a life outside of the workplace. One cannot and should not expect enterprises to provide all this.
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Divorce, Inequality, Poverty, and the Vanishing Middle Class (II) – Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part VI)

By YueChim Richard On 2014/01/01 · Add Comment · 35,165 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 1 January 2014) The public rental housing program had an in-built incentive that provided encouragement for unhappy couples to divorce. . . . . The high and rising divorce rate in Hong Kong is therefore both a cause and an effect of higher housing prices and rents. It distorts the measured inequality in household incomes . . . . These economic and social changes were magnified through a public rental housing program that at best failed to protect the relative and absolute wealth position of families without property and at worst created perverse incentives that increased the divorce rate among the poor. . . . . Our present day public housing program is reproducing poverty across generations against a background of sustained rising private property prices.
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Divorce, Inequality, Poverty, and the Vanishing Middle Class (I) – Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part V)

By admin On 2013/12/18 · Add Comment · 85,344 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 18 December 2013) Policies that are focused on a single number or a limited set of indicators can produce unexpected outcomes with perverse effects . . . . relying on single targeted public policies to treat complex social objectives that have multiple highly interrelated dimensions, like poverty, often falls seriously short of expectations.
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Human Capital Enhancement through Education and Immigration – Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part IV)

By admin On 2013/12/11 · Add Comment · 9,616 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 11 December 2013) Worker importation to alleviate supply side constraints would be a beneficial policy measure for Hong Kong and for these workers as well . . . . No city can thrive or even survive if it fails to receive permanent immigrants to take up residence and temporary workers to undertake jobs increasingly forsaken by the locals as their economies develop . . . . Our city must shed the insular mentality that is emerging today if it is to avoid the fate of becoming a capitalist museum in China by the end of this century.
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Adam Smith’s Moral Principles

By admin On 2013/12/04 · Add Comment · 6,738 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 4 December 2013) Sympathy is very much alive in Hong Kong, a society often misunderstood and accused of being only self-interested. Hong Kong is not only a shining example of the Smith of The Wealth of Nations, but also of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Perhaps there is reason for hope, even in this global age, in Smith’s optimism in the moral sentiments of ordinary people.
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Adam Smith’s Political Economy and its Significance in the Modern World

By YueChim Richard On 2013/11/27 · Add Comment · 7,357 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 27 November 2013) Smith’s thoughts on the proper functioning of society, including its treatment of the unfortunate, are contained in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. . . . . His goal in writing The Theory of Moral Sentiments was to explain why man is able to form moral judgments, in spite of his natural inclinations towards self-interest.
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The Population Quality Challenge – Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part III)

By admin On 2013/11/20 · Add Comment · 20,171 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 20 November 2013) It is fair to say that the public and the government were not unaware of the worsening demographic condition in Hong Kong. Unfortunately the challenges of slow growth in the quantity and quality of the population was often understood as only an ageing problem rather than in its many dimensions which are leading to worsening economic prospects, . . . . The situation was worsened by inadequate investment in education. These long lasting effects will continue to impact Hong Kong’s future this century unless we implement an immigration policy and set significant target numbers to attract educated and skilled persons to be our permanent residents.
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The Population Numbers Challenge – Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part II)

By admin On 2013/11/13 · Add Comment · 84,288 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 13 November 2013) The government’s recent consultation document on population policy, entitled "Thoughts for Hong Kong" and released by the Steering Committee on Population Policy on October 24, addresses this important issue. But I fear it has presented our dire situation in such a moderate light that the frog still feels too comfortable sitting in a pot of warm water to have stirred.
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Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part I)

By YueChim Richard On 2013/11/06 · Add Comment · 89,541 views
(This essay was published in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 6 November 2013) Today I begin a new series of essays on how to rekindle Hong Kong’s magic. This is my third series on the city and, with the two earlier series on “Hong Kong’s Deep Contradictions” and “Has Hong Kong Lost Its Magic?”, it forms a trilogy that completes my thoughts on my favorite city. As Hong Kong pads her way through a changing global economic landscape in which China is now an emerging power and our sovereign country, she has become troubled by disagreements over her identity and future place, both in China and the world. She is therefore unsure of her role.
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